Question

How does Buddhism understand the notions of 'demons' and 'divinities'?

Answer

This is a fundamental question. Humans from non-Buddhist cultures tend to see Buddhism through a Judeo-Christian prism, which influences or even prevents their understanding of Buddhist concepts.

This is the case, for example, with the notions of 'demons' and 'divinities'.

Let's take the notion of 'demons' first.

In the letter to the Ikegami brothers, Nichiren Daishōnin, citing the great halt and contemplation writes:

"The doctrine of One Thought Three Thousand, revealed in the fifth volume of the Great Arrest and Contemplation, goes even further. If you speak of this doctrine, demons are bound to appear. If they did not appear, there would be no way of knowing that this was the correct teaching. In the same fifth volume we read: "As practice and understanding deepen, three obstacles and four demons emerge in deceptive forms, competing with each other. We must not obey them, nor be frightened by them. Obeying them would lead us down the wrong path. To be afraid of them would prevent us from practicing correct teaching. This statement not only applies to me but also serves as a clear mirror for my disciples. Respectfully make this comment your own and pass it on as a basic principle of faith to future generations".

Also, in the Reply to Hyōe no Sakan, he writes:

"When an ordinary human becomes Buddha, three obstacles and four demons inevitably arise. At that moment, the wise man rejoices, while the fool is frightened and withdraws.

I will now briefly recall what the three obstacles and four demons are (in Japanese Sanshō shima - 三障四魔).

In Buddhism, the three obstacles are the obstacles due to evil passions, karma and retribution. Bad passions are the three poisons of greed, anger and stupidity. The obstacles due to karma are the bad deeds we have perpetrated in past lives. The obstacles due to retribution are the karmic consequences of our actions.

The four demons are the demons of aggregates, bad passions, death and the king demon of the 6th heaven. The demon of aggregates disturbs the five elements that make us up. The demon of evil passions is stimulated by the three poisons. The demon of death takes hold of the practitioner's life. The demon king of the 6th heaven is considered to be the root of all obstacles and demons.

The three obstacles and four demons are obstacles and trials that Buddhist practitioners must overcome on their path to enlightenment. However, in the process of awakening, the submission of the demon is an obligatory passage.

In the Letter to the brothers, Nichiren Daishōnin writes that obstacles due to Karma manifest in the form of the spouse and children, while obstacles due to retribution manifest in the form of the ruler and parents.

The Ikegami brothers, Shijō Kingo and Nanjō Tokimitsu were practitioners of Nichiren Daishōnin Buddhism. They all faced obstacles and hardships as a result of their practice.

The Ikegami brothers were disinherited by their father because they made shakubuku for him.

Shijō Kingo was deprived of his fiefdom by his suzerain for the same reason.

Nanjō Tokimitsu was unfairly overtaxed.

But through their faith and practice, and by scrupulously following the advice of Nichiren Daishōnin, these men eventually overcame these obstacles.

The Ikegami brothers' father converted to the Buddhism of Nichiren Daishōnin.

Shijō Kingo regained the trust of his suzerain and received a fiefdom twice the size of his previous one.

Nanjō Tokimitsu became a great benefactor of Nichiren Daishōnin Buddhism by offering the Taisekiji grounds to Nikkō Shōnin.

Nichiren Daishōnin himself had to confront the demon throughout his life. From the very beginning of his preaching, in fact, as he sets out in the Eye-opening Treatise, he was plagued by the dilemma of promulgating his doctrine or evading it:

"I was the only person in the whole of Japan who understood this. Yet to utter even one word about it would inevitably incur the wrath of my parents, my brothers, my masters, and even the ruler of our country. On the other hand, I am fully aware that silence would show a lack of compassion. I asked myself, weighing up these two paths in the light of the Lotus and Nirvana Sutras. By remaining silent, I could escape persecution in this life, but I would inevitably be plunged into the ceaseless torments of hell in the life to come. If I were to speak, I know full well that I would have to face the three obstacles and the four demons. However, between these two extremes, I opted for the second".

The climax of this confrontation with the demon took place in Tatsunokuchi. At the supreme moment when the executioner, the captain of the left guard Echi no Saburō Naoshige was about to raise his sword, which bore the famous name Hedōmaru meaning "Snake's Torso", he approached, holding his sword in front of Nichiren Daishōnin's face and allegedly whispered to him: "Oh, Nichiren! Why don't you stop being so stubborn? Even if it's my role, I don't want to cut a monk's neck off. But you know what they say: lying is sometimes a convenient expedient. Don't make a big deal of it, just stop the Nam Myōhōrengekyō for a moment and chant Namu-Amida-Butsu".

Nichiren Daishōnin then replied, "I am not undertaking this out of mere whim. I chant this Nam-Myōhōrengekyō and advocate it, because it is the only way to save the country and enable the people to attain the true happiness that is Buddhahood. It is the only way to deliver everyone from hell. If I stop myself, the path that leads people to Buddhahood will be closed. I will not yield." And then he tirelessly intoned Nam-Myōhōrengekyō, Nam-Myōhōrengekyō....

We know the rest. Through his will, his fundamental Buddha state of life, Nichiren Daishōnin had transformed the demon into a deity.

In the end, doesn't the difference between "demon" and "divinity" lie solely in our state of life? In the Letter to Jōnin, Nichiren Daishōnin writes:

"The demon's inclination lies in the pleasure he takes in thwarting good and inciting evil. However, in the face of those who, through vigorous resistance, stand up to him without allowing themselves to be corrupted, he then finds himself powerless and is forced to direct them towards good".

This is what he did at Tatsunokuchi, resisting the Demon who had no other resource than to transform himself into a divinity, allowing him to reveal his original nature as the fundamental Buddha, illuminating the eternal darkness of the End of the Dharma.

Shakyamuni too had resisted the seduction of the demon under the Boddhi tree. And once he had become Buddha, it was the divinity Brahma who appeared to him internally to encourage him to save all beings.

Demon or divinity, in the final analysis, the comparison is in some ways similar to that made by Nichiren Daishōnin between hell and pure earth in his treatise on attaining Buddhahood in one lifetime, saying:

"When the hearts of beings are defiled, the earth is defiled. When their hearts are pure, the earth is pure. Whether we speak of pure earth or defiled earth, the earth, in fact, knows no such distinction. It only manifests itself according to the good or evil in our hearts".

In this sense, thus Nichiren Daishōnin expressed himself in his writing entitled "The Various Actions", when faced with his most bitter opponents, those who wanted nothing more than his demise:

"My best allies in the prospect of becoming Buddha are Kagenobu, the monks Ryōkan, Dōryū and Dōamidabutsu, Hei no Saemon and the lord of Sagami. I am grateful to them because without them, how would I have been able to prove that I am the practitioner of the Lotus Sutra"?

In the end, whether we believe that what happens to us is the work of a demon or a deity is entirely up to us. In Answer to the Wife of Messire Ōta, also known as Treatise on Achieving Buddhahood from this Body, Nichiren Daishōnin writes:

"What is called 'poison' is the two truths of suffering and the causes of suffering. The causality of lives and deaths is the poison within the poison. That which transforms this poison into the identity of lives and deaths with Nirvana, the identity of evil passions with Buddhahood, is the ultimate characteristic of Myō. What we call a good remedy is the medicine that transforms the poison into a remedy".

Thus, the energy of our faith in the Dai Gohonzon combined with the energy of our practice bring forth the powers of the Buddha and the Dharma, present in the Gohonzon, within us, enabling us to transform all the negative aspects of our lives (demons, evil passions and the like) into divinity, Buddhahood and bliss.

This is finally as Nichiren Daishōnin expresses it in his Treatise on the Meaning of Substance by:

"He who honestly rejects the means, only has faith in the Lotus Sutra and recites Nam Myōhōrengekyō transforms the three ways of evil passions, karma and suffering into three virtues of Dharma body, wisdom and liberation. The threefold vision of the threefold truth appears in his heart and the place where that person dwells becomes the land of ever serene light."